A JUDGE told a Catholic priest who sexually assaulted a teenager that he had betrayed his community and the church as he jailed him yesterday (Thursday, October 17).

A JUDGE told a Catholic priest who sexually assaulted a teenager that he had betrayed his community and the church as he jailed him yesterday (Thursday, October 17).

Sentencing Father Anthony McCaffery to 12 months' imprisonment for indecent assault, Judge David Maddison told Liverpool crown court that the parishioners who had sent 170 letters of support had been let down by him.

McCaffery, 41, who was once chancellor of the Liverpool archdiocese, was convicted of indecent assault last month.

During his five-day trial, the jury heard McCaffery indecently assaulted a 19-year-old man hours after returning from a week-long trip to the Vatican on church business.

McCaffery, who was then the parish priest at St Andrew's church, Hunts Cross, performed an oral sex act on the man while he slept at his home on February 3 2001.

The victim, who is now a 21-year-old university student, submitted a statement of the impact the assault has had on his life to Judge Maddison.

The judge told the court, which was packed with church-goers who wept as MCaffery was jailed, that the victim can no longer trust people because of what the former priest did to him.

He said: "The complainant feels as though he has been in an emotional prison and he says, amongst other things, the incident has adversely affected his social life and obliterated his trust in the church."

McCaffery resigned from his post as parish priest and chancellor of the archdiocese after being found guilty of the offence.

The judge told him as he bowed his head in the dock: "This offence involved a serious betrayal of the trust imposed on you in relation to you parish, community and church.

"Though people have written in your support, these are amongst the people that you have let down."

More than 90 of McCaffery's former congregation attended the hearing and had sent a 1600-signature petition in support of the ex-priest.